What Could Never Be
by Rose Stetson
Summary: On the eve of her 200th birthday, when Helen sees a flash of blond hair atop a rooftop, she wants to believe she's found her oldest daughter again. But that's too good to be true, isn't it? Part III of the story that began with "What Might Have Been"
1. Welcome Home

**What Could Never Be**

Sequel to "What Might Have Been" and "The Way It Really Was"

_2051:_

Helen sighed as she looked around her study. Another year had come and gone; she had officially seen two centuries pass, and still she looked as young as she had at the beginning of her nightmare. She looked at the photo on her desk of the blond-haired angel whom she'd lost forty-two years earlier. The pain was still as deep now as it had been back then while the regrets had been given time to cultivate and grow. How she missed Ashley.

Hearing the clock behind her tick slowly, she looked back at the screen in her desk in an attempt to return to her work, using her stylus to make some adjustments to her notes in her impeccable script. Their first dragon egg had been recovered only a few months ago by the Chinese Sanctuary, and then handed to her for her personal study. With all of the changes she was detecting in it, it would hatch any day now.

There was a beep as a holographic image of her daughter appeared on her desk, necessitating that Helen pause her work. "Mom?"

Helen smiled as she looked at the miniature representation of the now auburn-haired woman to whom she'd given birth forty years earlier. "Yes, Audrey?"

"Magnus, Gregory, the kids and I are ready to come back, but it'd help if you'd let down the EM shield."

Helen chuckled softly as she quickly accessed a program on her computer. "It's down."

Her daughter's hologram disappeared as Audrey, her husband, Magnus Zimmerman and their five-year-old daughter, Katie, named for her late paternal grandmother, appeared before her. "Just two more trips," Audrey promised, disappearing once again.

Helen couldn't help but chuckle as she looked over at her son-in-law. "No time for a proper greeting, I suppose," she teased.

He laughed as Katie raced toward Helen. "Gramma!"

"Hello, sweetheart," Helen said, absorbing the five-year-old's energy easily as she caught her in her arms and hugged her tightly. "How was London, hm?"

"Cool!" She cried, excitedly.

Another violet-colored flash appeared, and Helen turned to find her son, forty-year-old, Gregory, shuddering. "I hate when she does that."

Helen offered him a sympathetic smile as he left where he'd been standing in his twin sister's grasp and walked toward her. "Hello, Mother."

"How are you, Gregory?" She asked, hugging him tightly.

Her daughter still looked like she was twenty-five, but her son, the considerably more sober head of the UK Sanctuary, was beginning to gray at the temples with the stress of his job.

"I'm fine," he said, returning the embrace before he pulled away.

"Magnus, a little help here?" Audrey asked, her three-year-old son, Luke, unwilling to let go of his mother's leg.

"Come here, little guy," Magnus said, prying the toddler away from his mother, eliciting a wail from the young boy. "I know, I know. But Mommy'll be right back."

Audrey looked back at her mother. "One more trip." She said before she disappeared in a flash of color.

"What on Earth is she getting?" Helen asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "You're all here."

"Surprises." Gregory said with a grin.

Helen couldn't help but chuckle as she shook her head. "You're incorrigible," she laughed.

"Something I inherited from my mother," he teased, affectionately, as Magnus brought Helen's grandson to her. "Oh, this can't be my little Luke, can it?" She asked, feigning shock. "He's so much smaller than this young man."

"I free now." Luke said, holding up three pudgy fingers for her to see.

"Three?" Helen asked with a widening smile on her face.

He nodded, emphatically, and Helen chuckled softly. "Well, I suppose that makes you a regular English gentleman then."

The toddler yawned, and Magnus smiled. "And that's a sign that it's naptime."

Helen chuckled. "Welcome home."

"Thanks, Helen." He said, reaching for his daughter's hand.

"Just so you know, I believe your father is in his office awaiting your arrival."

"Grandpa!" Katie cried, excitedly.

"Come on, Katie," Magnus said, offering his hand to the young girl. "Let's get Luke ready for a nap and then, we can go see Grandpa."

"I no wan' nap." Luke protested as his sister accepted their father's hand.

"I'll have these taken to your quarters," Helen said before Magnus could even think about getting the bags himself.

"Thanks," he said, relieved.

Helen watched him leave, remembering for a moment the first time she'd ever heard of him, long before he'd been conceived, in the alternate timeline that the Guardian had shown her when she'd found the cure to her longevity. She shuddered involuntarily.

"Cold?" Gregory asked, feeling her vibration.

Helen shook her head. "I'm fine."

"Finished!" Audrey cried, appearing before them again.

"Empty-handed, I see." Helen mused.

"Mother, it's your birthday," Audrey said, shaking her head. "I would never be empty-handed."

Helen tensed. "Just tell me that you've only brought presents and no plans to celebrate with a large event."

She won no response from either of her full-grown children, though Gregory looked down, properly abashed.

"Audrey, we've been over this," Helen sighed, heavily.

"It's your two-hundredth birthday, Mom. We can't just ignore it. And if we did, someone else would throw you a party."

Helen managed a small smile, knowing that it was useless to try and fight Audrey – she had inherited both of her parents' determination which made her nearly unstoppable in pursuing what she wanted. "I suppose you're right," she finally managed. "Now...your husband and children are either in their usual suite or headed down to see Will."

"I should go and help out." Audrey said after a moment.

Helen nodded, watching her leave.

"I'm sorry about the party, Mother, but you know what it's like to fight Audrey..."

"Yes, I know." Helen said, turning a preoccupied smile to her son. "But if it makes her happy..."

"What about what makes you happy, Mother?"

Helen bit her lip. She'd given up trying to be truly happy a long time ago. Happiness made way for devastation. It always had, and it always would, she realized.

Having Ashley had lulled her into happiness, and a short twenty-five years later, she'd died. That had made way for John to return to her life, only to die at the hand of an abnormal, leaving her with a broken heart and another unplanned pregnancy. Then, John had reappeared after the discovery of a cloning plan that Nikola had put together, and in an uncharacteristic move, she invited him back into her life and into the life of their children, only to hear the devastating news...

"Magnus?" Will had asked, hesitantly knocking on the door to Helen's study.

"Yes?" She asked, looking up from her work.

"Look, I know you're busy catching up and all, but...I think there's something you need to see."

The woman stood, perplexed by the younger man's hesitation. "You don't need to apologize, Will. You've done a wonderful job running the Sanctuary in my absence. And you kept me very well-informed. I don't feel like there's much on which to catch up."

He managed a strained smile. "Thanks, Magnus, but...I really think you should see this..."

She merely nodded as she followed him into his office to the small television set that sat on his desk.

"Authorities suspect that the murders are connected – one of the many copycats of the Ripper killings from 1888."

Her breath was trapped in her chest as she stared at the television screen.

"Look, I know what he means to you, but..."

She looked up instantly, feeling the all-too familiar feeling of adrenaline rushing through her veins as she realized that the most notorious serial killer of all time threatened her family's safety once again. "He's with Audrey and Gregory. Dear God, he's with my babies..."

She'd grabbed the nearest gun and hurried to the nursery to find John Druitt reading silently in the room with the then-year-old twins.

"I thought we'd moved past this part of our relationship," he drawled lazily, barely putting aside the book in his hands.

"Tell me when, John." She whispered, trying to keep the tears from streaming down her cheeks.

"When what?" He asked, feigning ignorance.

"I saw the news, John!" She cried, angrily. "You've been killing again!"

The twins awoke, and Helen turned to the unexpected sound of Audrey's crying. John took advantage of the opportunity to disarm her, and pull her back against him with one arm tight against her throat. "Do you really want to know?" He whispered, his breath hot against her ear.

With her heart pounding in fear, she watched as her manservant and makeshift nanny, affectionately called by the other "the Big Guy" appeared in the door at the sound of the twins' tears only to have John whip Helen around to face the door. "Don't..." John ordered the hirsute butler.

"Druitt..." Will said, appearing a few moments later. "Let her go. Don't do this."

The serial killer raised an eyebrow as he looked at the younger man. "And who's going to stop me?"

Helen watched her protege's eyes, waiting for some signal that it was safe to make her move. She got a moment's approval, and she stomped on the inside of John's foot, feeling the bone give way as her heel crushed one of the smaller bones.

"Agh!" The man cried, momentarily releasing his grip on his former lover. As she hurried toward the gun, he grabbed her hair and pulled her back.

Will revealed a handgun and shot John in the shoulder as the infants cries grew louder. "Let her go, Druitt."

Suddenly, a blade appeared in Druitt's hand, hovering above Helen's jugular. Thinking quickly, she swept her leg underneath him, forcing him to the ground, and her along with him. With the force of the blow to the ground, however, he released his grip on her hair, and she retrieved the gun, standing over him in righteous indignation. "You need to leave now." She managed, her voice trembling with anger and fear together.

"Or you'll do what?" He asked with the smirk to which she'd grown too familiar. "Shoot me?"

Her gaze hardened. "If you ever come near me or my children again, I will do worse than shoot you."

His eyebrow raised as he laughed softly at her threat. "Do try better than that, Helen," he said, playfully.

"If she can't, I will." Will assured, pointing his gun at the man again.

John's smirk turned into a twisted smile as he disappeared from view only to crackle against the EM shield, causing Helen to tear up involuntarily with the stress of what had just transpired. "He's gone..." She whispered, remembering for an instant her daughter's similar death. "After a century and a half, he's..."

She couldn't bring herself to say the words as she looked at Will in shock.

The Big Guy didn't say anything about what had just happened, allowing Will to comfort Helen as he picked up the twins, and instantly comforted them back to silence.

"Mother?"

Helen turned to her son, instantly regretting the flashback. "Yes?"

"Did you hear my question?"

"What question?" She deflected, expertly, as she walked down the corridors of the Sanctuary.


	2. Skeptics

"Magnus?" Helen asked, tapping her radio so that she could reach her son-in-law.

"Yes, Helen?"

"Can you find someone to stay with the children for a few hours?" She asked, biting her lip as she looked at the images on her screen. "I have something I need your help with."

"Dad wanted to see the kids this afternoon," Magnus said, affirmatively. "I'll be there in ten minutes. Is that soon enough?"

"Thank you," Helen said, looking once again at the image she'd received from her contacts at the police station. There was something absolutely astounding about it.

"Hey, Doc?"

Helen looked up to find an aging Henry walk unevenly into the room, his back ever so slightly curved from leaning over the trademark tablet in one hand and an all-too familiar cane in the other, an unfortunate addition since an incident on a mission nearly fifteen years ago that had crushed Henry's leg. He was lucky to be walking at all. "Henry," she greeted warmly.

"You got the link?" Henry asked, motioning to the screen.

She nodded as she quickly input the command to transmit the screen images to a holographic image in front of her. She immediately scrolled through with her finger before she arrived at one for the technician to see. "What does that say to you?" She asked, pointing at the image as he limped over to stand beside her.

"Uh, that I need my glasses," he sighed, setting his tablet on her desk and set the cane against the desk.

Helen managed an almost apologetic smile as he reached into his pocket for the corrective lenses. Perched on the bridge of his long nose, he looked at the image. "Hm...if I had to hazard a guess, it's probably blood." He pulled the glasses from his nose and sighed. "But then, this isn't exactly my area of expertise...it's more Will's."

"He's otherwise occupied," Helen said, turning her attention back to the screen. "But I agree with you – it's probably blood. And, from the looks of it, it dripped down from something above."

"That's going too far into Will's alley for an old HAP like me," Henry laughed, putting his glasses back into his breast pocket.

Helen laughed softly before she studied the man who'd become like a son to her in their nearly sixty-five years together. "How are you feeling?"

He patted his leg, gently. "Ah, the bum leg's actin' up a bit, but that's probably because of the rain in the forecast."

"You'll tell me if you need anything?" Helen asked, earnestly.

"You betcha." He said, pointing at her as he limped away from the desk and out the door.

Helen sighed, heavily. Another generation of coworkers and friends who were growing old without her.

"You ready for me yet?" Magnus asked, walking into the room.

"Yes, thank you." She said, nodding. "These are the photographs which were sent to me from a contact in the police department. Tell me what you think of them."

* * *

Helen walked down the alley with experienced precision as she held the firearm in front of her for cover. Her eyes scanned the alley quickly, pausing for a moment as she noticed a strange spot on the wall. "Magnus," she called to her protege's son, not turning her eye from the anomaly. "What do you make of this?"

The athletic thirty-eight-year-old with observant brown eyes, thick dark hair, and an olive complexion walked over to where she stood before he turned his eye to the same place on the wall. "Hm. Dark stain on the wall. More like a drip than a splatter or a spot..."

Helen nodded. "In the sunlight, I would imagine that we're looking at dried blood."

"Looks like we were right about the photograph." He agreed.

"Yes, but that was further down the alley."

"I noticed that too." He nodded. "Maybe whatever left the blood there also left it here."

She nodded her agreement.

"Now for the more obvious question..." Helen said, inhaling as she looked over at her companion.

"How did it get there?" Magnus finished, looking over at her.

"Um-hm," she murmured as she looked around the alley for other clues. Something caught the sunlight, and Helen looked up only to blink in surprise. Blond shoulder-length hair. She could have sworn she'd seen straight, blond, shoulder-length hair.

Like Ashley's before she died.

"I suppose that it could have been from any abnormal which could climb walls..." He murmured from beside her, still facing the wall. "Maybe got injured himself or..."

Helen looked over at him, and he noticed the look on her face. "Helen?"

"You didn't see her?" She asked, looking back.

There was nothing there, and she inhaled sharply.

"Her who?" He asked, following her gaze, curiously.

"Nothing." Helen said, shaking her head. She couldn't possibly have seen her daughter. Ashley had died forty-two years ago.

We never recovered a body, the voice in her head reminded her as Magnus Zimmerman continued to speculate about the blood they'd found.

"...know what could have climbed the wall and would also have red blood? Or at least would feed on something that had red blood?"

Helen looked over, shaking herself from her reverie. "I'm sorry...what?"

"Maybe I should get Audrey or do this later..." Magnus said, looking over at his boss, concerned.

"I thought..." She began.

"You thought..." He prodded.

She inhaled. "I thought I saw Ashley."

He raised an eyebrow. "Your daughter, Ashley?"

She nodded, slowly. "I...I must have been mistaken."

"Yeah. She's been dead for forty years or so. I think you would have found her by now if she was still here..."

"I know that, Magnus." She snapped, looking over. "It must have been a trick of the light."

"Maybe you should go home and get some rest. Talk to Dad, maybe."

"Perhaps you're right," she admitted. "I did not rest much last night, and it might be a good idea to speak with Will about this." She sighed before she looked back at her namesake. "Call Audrey. I'll take the van, and return to the Sanctuary."

He nodded. "Then, we'll bag this sucker and join you."

"You are your mother's son, aren't you?" Helen teased with a light-hearted smile.

He grinned. "Just doin' my job."

* * *

She appeared suddenly on the rooftop. Ripping from one place to another always gave her a thrill she couldn't quite recreate in any other way.

With cat-like precision, she stealthily made her way to the window, looking down on the museum. As her intelligence had indicated, the guard made his rounds of the room she watched at 9:10.

"Gotcha," she murmured as she pulled the black ski mask over her face and almost white-blond hair. She reached for the device she had in her pocket, and pressed a button which completely disabled the cameras before she flashed into the room, broke the encasing, took the priceless Roman vase, and flashed right back out.

* * *

"Hey, uh, Helen?"

The woman looked up as seventy-five-year-old Will Zimmerman walked into her office. "Yes, Will?"

He'd begun calling her "Helen" instead of "Magnus" in an effort to minimize the confusion after his son's birth, and she'd been almost surprised at how much she missed the old nickname. Just like she would miss Henry's affectionate "Doc" when he finally...

Don't think about it, Helen, she thought to herself as she pushed the melancholy thoughts of imminent loss out of her mind.

"I found something I think you should see." He said, showing her a small computer card. Unlike Henry, he was a spry man even in his seventies, though Helen knew that had been a result of daily workouts in the Sanctuary's fitness center. But what his physicality didn't say was that he'd recently recovered from a heart attack, and that Helen was vigilantly watching to make sure that he didn't have another.

He quickly made it to her desk, sliding the chip into the front of the desk to be read by the interconnected computer. Then, he sent a holographic image up in front of where he stood beside Helen.

"What is it?" She asked as she watched the video.

"Wait for it," he said, watching the video with a trained eye. It seemed like any other surveillance with guards walking to and fro, and silence in between. "Now." He said as the screen went blank.

"That's odd," Helen said, her brow furrowing.

"That's what I thought." He said, stopping the video.

"What is it from?"

"That one was from the British Royal Museum." Will said, soberly. "About the time that the video cut out, they lost a set of priceless jewels that were on loan from the Royal Family."

Helen's eyebrow raised instantly.

"I have five other tapes, each pretty much like this. Regular surveillance, a sudden stop to them, and some major loss. Uh...in Russia, they lost one of the Faberge eggs, um...I think there's also a Dead Sea Scroll missing, and a lesser-known Van Gogh. And most recently, here, they lost a Roman vase that had been on loan from the Italian government."

"And the authorities don't know what to make of it?" She asked, looking over at him for confirmation.

"That's just it," Will said, soberly. "There's no sign of struggle, no sign of intruder, there isn't so much as a broken window."

"The authorities have no suspects then?"

"I didn't say they didn't have any suspects," Will said with chagrin. "But none that would be able to pull off a heist in all five cities."

"Then, they were all in different places around the world?"

"And within the last five months."

She swallowed. "Well, there's really only been one abnormal I've known that could appear and disappear at will, and grand larceny wasn't his modus operandi." She sighed. "Well, of course, there's Audrey, though I doubt with her work here at the Sanctuary and her family that she has time to even think about making a heist so large." Helen didn't mention that as the woman's mother, she didn't believe that Audrey would resort to stealing priceless artifacts.

"No, I know," Will said, shaking his head. "I'm not saying that Jack the Ripper had anything to do with this..."

She tensed at the title her former lover had earned for himself.

"And probably not Audrey...I'm just wondering if...maybe there's something else out there. You know, with their particular talents..."

Helen looked distinctly skeptical before she remembered what had transpired earlier that morning. A flash of blond hair? John's talent for appearing and disappearing when and where he wanted to? "Perhaps...there is someone else..." She said after a moment.

Will looked over at her in interest.

"Ashley."

He froze for a moment, surprised that she'd even said anything. "Helen..."

"This morning as I was working with Magnus," she began instantly. "I saw something. A brief flash for a moment. It was the same color as her hair. But before I could investigate further, it disappeared."

The forensic psychologist still looked distinctly skeptical.

"I know what you're thinking." She said, seriously. "And if I was in your shoes, I would probably think it too, but..."

"Listen to what you're saying, Helen." He interrupted, shaking his head. "Forty-two years ago, I sat right here and listened to you go on and on about how Ashley had been trapped by the EM shield somewhere in the Sanctuary. So, we looked. And we found the bones of another one of those superabnormals. Then, you fed me some story about how the computer had absorbed her energy signature. And again, I listened..."

"I'm not crazy," she protested.

"I never said you were," he said with a sigh. "Lonely for your oldest daughter, however? Yes."

Her face was stony as she waited for a moment to compose herself before continuing. "I'll have Audrey and Magnus see about possibly pretending to be buyers for the stolen articles."

"Helen..."

"Did you need anything else?" She asked, turning a veiled eye to him.

"No." He sighed. "Nope. That's all."

"Then, if you'll excuse me?" She said, motioning to her computer screen.


	3. Briefing

"Okay, okay," Henry said, walking over to his tablet. "I'm still working on getting a lock on who's trying to sell these things...since we don't exactly have any contacts in this market, but until then, uh..."

"Henry..." Helen murmured, trying to get him to speed up, as he spoke to Will, Helen, Gregory, Magnus and Audrey.

"Right, uh," he said, unevenly maneuvering around his small technological lab. "But I managed to get you these."

"Visiting Curator badges?" Gregory asked, studying the badges with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, well...it's not like we can pretend to be nebulous Feds because they're already all over the scene." He said with a sigh. "But I managed to hack into the system and send a couple of emails to the key figures in the museum's management. They think they're going to be hosting visiting curators from the British Royal Museum – Dr. Helen Magnus and Dr. Will Zimmerman"

Helen tried to hide an amused smile before she turned to her technician. "Good work, Henry."

"Thank you." He said with a grin.

"When are they expecting these visiting curators?" She asked, picking up her ID badge.

"Tomorrow morning, eight a.m."

"Excellent." Helen said, looking at her protege. "We leave for the museum at seven-thirty then."

He nodded.

Helen turned to her daughter and son-in-law. "I want you to be ready in case Henry receives a tip leading us to the seller of the stolen items."

"Mom, why are we looking into this?" Audrey said, her brow furrowed in confusion.

Helen turned to her daughter. "You don't find it interesting that the thief didn't trip any alarms, made no artificial entrance into the building, and was never caught on camera?"

"No, Mother, I don't." She said, shaking her head. "It's called an inside-job."

"In five different countries within five months?"

"Did anyone check the janitorial staff?"

"Look, I read the files," Will interjected. "As far as INTERPOL is concerned, there is no one who was in even just two of the museums at the times of the robbery."

"What about not at the time of the robbery. Maybe it's a group."

"INTERPOL already investigated this and got nothing. Maybe we can come up with something that they might not have thought of," Will said with a shrug.

"Mom, the only person who could have gotten in there without triggering alarms is me." She said with a steely gaze. "So unless you think it's me..."

Helen swallowed.

"You think it's Ashley," Gregory said, reading his mother like a book.

"Ashley?" Audrey asked, faintly. "Like the sister we never met?"

Helen's silence seemed to speak volumes to everyone in the room.

"Ashley?" Henry asked, shocked.

"I...I thought I saw..." She began, slowly.

"She died, Doc! Over forty years ago!" Henry said, looking at her incredulously. "It was sad, and there's not a day that goes by where I don't think about what it was like growing up with her, but...she's gone." He shook his head. "She teleported inside the EM shield, and..." He choked on his emotion. "She was my best friend and I miss her, but she's gone, Doc."

"Look, Henry, it's just a possibility we want to eliminate," Will said, ever the clear-headed psychologist.

The HAP turned a hateful look to his friend. "We know what happens to people when they teleport into the EM shield. And it's not pretty. There's no way that she could be here, and you know it."

"Stop it!" Helen cried. "All of you! Regardless of who may or may not be the perpetrator of these thefts, it is our obligation to look into them if we have even the slightest idea of what could be behind them."

"Our obligation, Mother?" Audrey asked, skeptically. "To which abnormal?"

"None of you need to join me. Ashley was my daughter." Helen said, soberly. She swallowed, trying to keep from letting her emotion show on her face.

"You said seven-thirty?" Will asked after a moment.

She nodded, slowly.

"I'll be there."

"Well, she was my sister." Gregory said after a moment. "If you need anything..."

She managed a grateful smile. "Then, I'll make my rounds and prepare for tomorrow." She said, softly, before she walked out of the lab.

Gregory turned to the rest of the group. "Look...I know it doesn't sound exactly plausible, but...I think I can speak for all of us when I say that she's supported us when we thought no one would. And even if it turns out that it wasn't Ashley...she's got a point that there's something...abnormal...going on here."

Audrey tensed before she turned to Henry. "Keep an eye on the buyer situation. I'm game."

"Me too." Her husband piped up from beside her.

"I think it's this...birthday..." Gregory said, his thoughts still on his mother.

"Yeah well, she's not exactly jumping up and down to celebrate." Henry said, soberly.

"But after the first thirty or so birthdays, weren't they all the same?" Will asked, turning to his friend who shrugged, noncommittally.

"No, it's not that." Gregory said, shaking his head. "It's...it's staying the same while so many of us are growing older."

"It's not that different." Audrey said, rolling her eyes.

"You're forty-one." He said, turning to his twin. "That's one-fifth of Mom's age. Do you understand that? Every major scientific breakthrough we've seen in the last two centuries...our mother was a part of every single one of them. Do you understand that?"

"I've seen her photos, Greg." Audrey said, glaring at her brother.

"Then, do you realize that all of her friends – all of the people she went to school with have...great-great-great-great-great grandchildren now? And they've all been dead for at least 150 years?"

Audrey bit her lip, looking away from her brother and her husband.

"Look, I'm just..."

"It's the kids' bedtime." She interrupted, abruptly. "I need to go say good night to my kids." She leaned over and kissed her husband's cheek before turning a conflicted look to her brother and leaving.

Gregory and Magnus watched her go as Will swallowed.

"She, uh...saw one of her friends from high school." Magnus said after a moment. "She had a daughter in college and a couple kids in high school."

"For a woman who seems to be twenty-five and has a kids who aren't even old enough to start grade school, that must have been a revelation." Will said after a moment.

"Yeah." Magnus said, swallowing.

"She couldn't look at us," Gregory said after a moment.

"How could she?" Magnus asked after a few moments. "When she knows that we're the first generation she's been destined to watch like her mother watched her schoolmates. Forty years old, and already there's a difference. Forty-years-old, and she see our mortality write it will upon us as she stays immune from its effects."

Magnus sighed. "I've got to join her. The kids can be a handful at bedtime."

Gregory, Henry and Will watched him go before Gregory turned to the other men in the room. "All this time, I thought she didn't understand Mother. Now, I'm starting to believe she's just afraid of admitting how much she does understand."

"She's a lot more like your mother than she realizes." Will said after a moment.

Henry swallowed. "Carbon copy," he agreed. "Unlike Ashley."

"You know, I haven't heard more than a few snippets about her," Gregory said after a moment.

"Ashley's hard to describe." Henry said with a fond smile. "But, uh, she's a lot like you. Just...a little more...American 21st century than you. You tend to take after your mom with the...old-school British taste."

"I think I'm starting to get...some picture...of what she was like..." Gregory said, thinking deeply.

Henry nodded. "She was one hell of a good gal. Maybe a bit too impulsive to run a place like this, but...definitely a good tracker."

Will nodded, slowly, his thoughts drifting back to his late wife, who had died while helping to catch an abnormal nearly twenty years earlier.

"Anyway, I guess it wouldn't surprise me if Ashley turned up that she stole these things. She wasn't into pretty things really...not even really into money, but guns? That was her thing. Man, she loved her weapons."

"Yeah, well," Will murmured. "She kind of took after Jack the Ripper in that respect."

Gregory's eyes widened, and Will swallowed, having forgotten for a moment that the forty-one-year-old man had never learned his father's true identity.

"Uh..." Will began, slowly.

"Don't apologize." Gregory said after a few moments. "I think that sentence right there just made everything I've ever heard about my father make sense."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't have heard it from me," Will said with a grimace. "I should have been more careful."

Gregory bit the inside of his cheek before he turned to Henry. "Thanks for sharing about my sister. It, uh, helped me decide for sure that I want to help Mother look for her." He turned to Will. "And, uh, thanks for telling me about my dad. It probably wasn't the best way you could have told me, but it's still nice to know. I won't tell Mother you told me."

"I'd appreciate it." Will said, seriously. He turned to Henry. "I'm going to turn in. Got a long day ahead of me at the museum tomorrow." He said, picking up his badge.


	4. Evidence

"May I help you?" A young woman with light brown hair and a winning smile asked as Will and Helen approached the front desk of the museum.

"I hope so," Helen said, offering the young woman a smile of her own. "My name is Dr. Helen Magnus, and this is my colleague, Dr. Will Zimmerman. We're here from..."

"The British Royal Museum." She interrupted, nodding. "The curator's been expecting you. Right this way, please."

Helen nodded as she and Will followed, Helen's heels clacking against the tile as her curls bounced with each step toward the office.

"Dr. Magnus and Dr. Zimmerman, I presume." The blond woman said with a smile as she looked at the visitors. "Welcome to the New City Museum of Antiquities. My name is Sydney Hamilton, and I'm the curator here."

Helen shook her hand with a smile before Dr. Hamilton turned and shook Will's hand.

"I was sorry to hear about the recent theft of the Roman vase from your museum." Helen said as Dr. Hamilton led them out of the office.

"And I was sorry to hear about the royal jewel theft from yours." Dr. Hamilton said somewhat tartly.

"I'm sorry," Helen said, apologetically. "That was rude of me."

Sydney turned to the other woman with a small sigh. "And I'm overreacting," she said with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry as well."

"Have there been any leads on the theft?" Will asked, conversationally.

"You mean besides the million dollar reward that INTERPOL has posted for information that could lead to the perpetrator and the stolen artifacts?"

Helen's eyes widened. "One million dollars?"

Sydney nodded. "You didn't know?"

"We knew there was a reward," Will smoothed over. "But we didn't realize it was a million dollars."

"Five priceless artifacts went missing, Dr. Zimmerman, with little trace to who had taken them." She said, stoically. "Of course there's a substantial reward."

He nodded, slowly. "Of course."

"Why are you here again?" She asked, studying the two visitors.

"We've come for a number of reasons," Helen soothed. "Including examining and appreciating your unique collection of artifacts. But given our shared history in these thefts, we were also hoping to share information on how to keep these burglaries from happening again."

"The British Royal Museum is coming to New City for tips on security?" She asked, skeptically. "And to study OUR artifacts?"

Will could see the disbelief in the other woman's eyes, and he looked over. "Okay, okay, we're not curators."

She looked somewhat appeased by his admission.

"We're from the private security firm that handles the British Royal Museum's security. We're being audited because of the burglary, and we just want to make sure that we left no stone unturned, okay?"

She nodded, slowly. "Anything you need."

"Thank you." He said, gratefully. "Now, can you show us where the vase was being kept?"

* * *

"I have some other work to do," Sydney said as she brought them to the display. "Let me know if there's anything you need."

"Thank you," Helen said, gratefully, as the woman left. She turned to Will. "What do you see?"

"Well, the glass isn't broken." He said, studying the case, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been tampered with."

Helen raised an eyebrow as Will bent over and pointed to a nearly invisible line at the base of the glass enclosure. "Looks like it was something sharp."

"The authorities may have been looking for some sort of plasma cutter, but there are no signs of heat damage."

Will nodded as he placed both hands on the case, and gently lifted it off.

"But why didn't the alarm go off?" Helen asked, curiously. "Surely there was some sort of glass break detector or pressure sensor..."

"First of all, a glass break detector only handles the sound. If it didn't sound like the glass was breaking, then it wouldn't have gone off."

She nodded, following his argument.

"Secondly, the alarm is off. I shouldn't be able to lift this now without alarms going off."

"No museum in the world would have turned off an alarm, even on an empty display." She agreed.

"I think we need to reexamine whether or not whoever did this had inside help."

"Or...we need to know how much reconnaissance they did before the actual heist."

"What do you mean?" He asked as his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Perhaps there isn't anyone on the inside." She said, enlightened. "Think about it. All of the clues point to either Ashley or one of the other Montana test subjects – all of whom possessed any number of the powers of the Five."

"Right. Uh, vampiric tendencies, teleportation, ultra-healing capabilities..."

"Obviously if they were able to plan a heist of this magnitude, they have some small part of James's intellect." She said, pensively.

"Yeah, the perfect crime...I think Sherlock Holmes is the only who could really pull one off."

Helen nodded, tensing somewhat.

"If the super-abnormals had yours, Druitt's, Tesla's, and Watson's gifts, couldn't they have gotten Griffin's gift?"

Helen raised an eyebrow in interest. "You think the super-abnormals may not have used all of their powers to fight us."

"Or there was a latency factor that they didn't account for."

Helen's eyes widened. "If that's true," she said, soberly. "Then, we could have a much bigger problem than mere theft."

Will sighed. "I guess it's time to at least consider the possibility that our initial assessment that Ashley hadn't gotten through the EM field was erroneous."

Helen managed an uncomfortable smile as the reality of everything settled over her.


	5. Cat Burglar

She had been horrified when the long, black talon-like nails had burst forth from her fingers for the first time. And then, she'd realized how sharp and strong they were. Transforming her nails into these horrifyingly deadly weapons had become a thrill for her, setting her heart racing as she contemplated the many ways in which she could use them to get anything she wanted.

"There's a new player," her partner said, looking over at her. "A broker who calls himself Shadow who's been asking about the merchandise."

"Fed?" She asked, looking over at him.

He shook his head. "Doesn't look like it."

"What's his game?"

"Mongoose says he wants to introduce us to one of his clients. Some anonymous collector."

"A collector?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded. "Likes priceless jewels. I think we might be able to fence the Faberge and maybe even the collection from England."

"Deep pockets?"

"Apparently, they're practically endless."

"Excellent." She said with a grin.

"Maybe after we fence this, we can retire."

"Retire?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Well, we'll have made enough money that we could buy a private island and all of the people who live there."

"This isn't about money." She said, seriously.

"Then what is it about?" He asked, confused.

"It's about the challenge – the thrill."

"You've just robbed some of the best secured museums in the world!" He cried, absolutely stunned. "What more of a thrill could you get?"

"The best secured museums in the world will just make their security that much better." She said, simply. "I want to find out how, and I want to try again."

* * *

"I don't have to tell you that if Ashley made it through the EM shield," Will began, slowly. "Then, uh, Druitt might have..."

"The EM shield couldn't handle having two super-abnormals hit it at the same time – especially after having been weakened by the other super-abnormals who teleported into it." She interrupted. "When John teleported into the EM shield, he didn't have any of the same circumstances." She swallowed. "No," she said, curtly. "He's dead. I'm sure of it."

"Helen," he murmured, soberly.

"Please," she whispered. "Will..." She swallowed before she gathered her emotions again. Before she could continue, Henry came hurrying in, leaning heavily on his cane so that he could try to move more quickly.

"Who's the man?" He asked, excitedly.

Helen turned her attention to him instantly, grateful that she was spared the indignity of losing control of her emotions. "I'm sure you're about to tell me that you are." She said, unable to suppress an affectionate smile at his youthful enthusiasm.

He walked over to her desk, and began manipulating the holographic screen in front of him. "I made contact with the guy trying to fence the stolen artifacts."

Helen's eyebrows raised. "Guy?" She repeated, using Henry's colloquialism. "As in...male?"

"He's not the one who made the heist." Henry said, shaking his head. "Trust me. He doesn't smell like the kind of guy who could steal anything...and the old sniffer doesn't lie."

"You're absolutely certain this is the man selling off these priceless artifacts." Helen said, turning to him.

Henry nodded. He pulled up a small virtual folder filled with information. "Once I confirmed plans with him, I did a little research on our friendly government servers."

Helen raised an eyebrow. _Was that absolutely necessary?_ She seemed to be asking. "I don't have to remind you that our government contacts are, as always, a last resort."

"Don't worry. They'll never know I was there." He assured.

She shook her head with a mixture of amusement and irritation. "Go on."

"Now, I called myself Shadow." He turned to Helen and Will. "Since I'm not exactly field-ready, I think we should have either Magnus or Gregory standing by to go with Audrey if this comes up...you know, be Shadow. I can fit either of them with an untraceable wire and mic that I can tap into, you know, so I can give him all the info he needs."

He returned the computer without waiting for a response.

"This guy is Harrison Chamberlain. British dude who's been on the INTERPOL watch list for a few...smaller...heists. He's not the one who makes the heists, but he's probably the brains behind the operations. You know, finding the pieces which would actually turn a profit on the black market and all that."

"And the ones who actually perform the heists?"

"Best thieves in the world." He said, soberly. "There are whispers of someone, currently nicknamed the Cat Burglar. Apparently, no one has ever seen this person...not even to identify whether or not the Cat Burglar is a man or a woman. This thief leaves virtually no evidence that he or she has been there, and yet gets away with priceless artifact after priceless artifact."

"You mean they've done this before?"

"Two years ago, there was a similar string of burglaries. Major heists from major museums with ridiculously complex security protocols. I can't necessarily connect them to Harrison Chamberlain, but they're the work of the Cat Burglar. And the more I read of these heists, the more I think they have to be one of the superabnormals."

"Why?" Will asked, looking over at his friend.

"Because of this." Henry said, pulling up a video.

"I thought that all the security cameras were inexplicably offline during the thefts." Helen said, raising an eyebrow.

"In the museums," he said, nodding. "But...I didn't look there." He said, smugly. "I figured that someone else would have had cameras nearby which might have caught something. And if, as I suspect, this is more about the excitement of breaking into a highly secured area and less about the value of the artifacts, then, the thief might stay nearby to watch the fallout. Especially if they've got the luxury of literally disappearing."

"And?" Helen prompted.

"I found this." Henry said, pulling up a few frames of video before he paused. The figure in the video teleported out of the museum, covered in black from the top of its head to the bottom of its feet.

"Dammit," Helen cursed, angrily. There wasn't even the hint of a gender or identity. And the angle of the camera made it impossible to estimate the figure's height. All they could see was that someone who'd somehow inherited John Druitt's ability to appear and disappear in a specific location at will had indeed been the thief known to the world as the Cat Burglar.

"At least we know it's one of the superabnormals." Henry said, soberly.

"But we do not know if it's Ashley." She reminded him.

"I noticed that when I first found the video," he said, nodding. "But when I figured out that the Cat Burglar was one of the superabnormals, I looked into what he...or she...has stolen. And this will interest you." He said, looking at Magnus as he pulled up an image of an experimental weapon. "This was stolen two years ago from a secure U.S. Military base."

Helen's brow furrowed in confusion.

"The heist was perfectly aligned with the Cat Burglar's M.O. except that it was military technology."

Helen's eyes narrowed as she processed what Henry was telling her.

"Now, this weapon went missing...never to be seen again. Not on the black market, not in any rebel attacks...nothing. It's as if it just disappeared. Which after two years is virtually impossible."

"Unless the thief didn't take it for its military significance." Helen finished.

"You remember how much Ashley loved weapons." Henry said, evenly. "This was one of the first things that the Cat Burglar stole."

"And yet, the Cat Burglar has never been known to actually hurt anyone in the heists." Will murmured, pensively. "So...why steal a weapon that you have no plans to actually use?"

"Ashley wouldn't steal jewels and priceless artifacts for her own collection," Helen agreed. "Or even for money. For her, it would about the thrill of a well-executed heist."

"But for a weapon..." Will murmured as the thought came to fruition.

"Ashley had a fondness for weaponry that could be rather alarming," Helen admitted.

"For Ashley, that weapon would be the most personal of all the heists." Henry said with a grin.

"Then, it is Ashley." Helen murmured, her voice thick with unspoken emotion and relief.

Will looked over at the woman with a sober look in his eye. He didn't want to get her hopes up. He didn't want to see the heartache on her face that they'd seen first when Ashley had teleported into the EM shield and again when John had done the same. "I...think we need to meet the Cat Burglar before we can say anything definitive."

Helen looked over at him, and he could see in her eyes that she knew how protective he was being of her. There seemed to be a mixture of gratitude and simmering anger at the realization.

"You said you made an appointment for someone to look at the stolen artifacts?" She asked, turning to Henry.

He nodded. "I doubt that we'll meet the Cat Burglar. Anonymity seems to be one of the Cat Burglar's strengths."

"Then we'll have to leverage our considerable influence against Mr. Chamberlain so that he'll introduce us to the Cat Burglar." Helen said, simply.

"As in..." Henry prompted after sharing a worried look with Will. They'd both seen the great lengths that Helen had gone to discover her daughter's whereabouts when she'd first disappeared. Kate had nearly lost the use of her foot for refusing to impart her limited knowledge to the defensive mother. _Get used to sitting more, _had been Helen's final admonition as she cocked her handgun before Will had intervened and told her that she should _consider not spending so much time with Jack the Ripper. It's affecting your manners somewhat._

Neither man was particularly anxious to see a repeat performance of that desperation.

"Money, Henry." She said, honestly. "A great deal of money."


End file.
